Destiny 2 Beta

Cuse is articulating my complaints. The ability cooldowns, in particular, are fucking horrible - this includes supers. There is little variation between the classes as it is, but with the excruciatingly long cooldowns, they might as well be the same outside of their movement abilities.

Everything feels sluggish and unresponsive. I'm going to play some more today but I'm really thinking about cancelling my preorder and just picking up the PC version sometime down the line.

Keep in mind, ability cooldowns will be impacted by armor which have perks to reduce cooldowns so they may end up being pretty normal once everything is said and done. We're working with base cooldowns in the beta. For an example see the image below.

This has been the #1 complaint and feedback so far, so I can't see Bungie not addressing this.

I have other complaints as well, though... Primarily it has to do with the pace of combat and movement in general. It's slow... like, really slow. I feel encumbered, especially as a Titan. It could be a function of the horrible FoV (there's a slider on PC, why not on consoles?) and me misremebering, but it feels much slower than the first game, even when sprinting. Close combat is awkward, I think mainly due to the FoV.

In general, combat feels clunky and unintuitive, a major step back from the first game which was rock solid (in my opinion). It was snappy, responsive, and most importantly, a ton of fun. I am not feeling that way about the second entry at all. It feels like a chore to play. The lack of feedback when landing crits especially could be contributing to this feeling, I haven't been able to put my finger on it yet. I really miss the explosive pop and prominent oil explosion when you headshot the Cabal - critical hit feedback seems to have been toned down in general. This is compounded by the fact that they are the primary enemy now, so I imagine we will be seeing a lot of them over the course of the campaign.

Maybe I've just been spoiled by Overwatch which is pretty much perfect in terms of its gameplay mechanics. It is fast, responsive, and hit feedback is absolutely stellar. I have other, serious grievances with the game as a whole, but the gameplay is at or near the top of modern FPS (followed closely by Battlefield 1, but that is not a fair comparison to Destiny given the vast differences in the type of games they are).

I will continue giving it time over the next few days, and I am hoping that it clicks at some point. I love that there seems to be a stronger focus on the story this time, and I am incredibly impressed by the visuals - Bungie's art team has outdone themselves once again. There are a lot of things to like, but if the gameplay is not there, I'm not sure that I can get on board.

In terms of movement speed that is now heavily dependent on the armor as well. Instead of Intellect, Discipline, Strength for armor ratings it's now Resilience (armor), Mobility, and Recovery. Apparently even changing the armor in the beta makes a big difference.

Your 2nd paragraph is on point with what some other people have said. The gun-play and the feedback is different for sure, and it's something a lot of people immediately noticed and didn't like. Ghaleon wrote something very similar to what you wrote right there. He pointed out that all the particle effects makes it hard to get feedback on the damage you're doing and the crits.

I've gone ahead and cancelled my preorder. I think I'll wait for launch week impressions before I decide whether or not to pull the trigger on it. I really want to get the game at some point to complete the campaign, but I'm thinking a purchase when it's got a complete edition on PC sometime down the line would probably be the smartest call.

I may end up getting it much later on PC at a discount, but this just looks like a lot of the same. I mean it really looks identical visually and could have easily been another expansion (no new tech?). Not convinced that Bungie knows how to make a story yet either.

The guns feel just as good to shoot but they cranked the bullet sponge factor up to 11. The strike boss has a fun gimmick with changing his elemental weapons and attacking differently based on the phase of the fight, but he's just a massive pile of hit points to shoot at. Every weapon in PvE feels extremely weak, and not being able to use a shotgun or fusion rifle unless I have purple ammo is depressing. If you're going to put a shotgun in the same weapon category as a fucking ROCKET LAUNCHER, I better be killing three Cabal with one slug. Instead it feels exactly like it did in Destiny 1. Nessus is a gorgeous environment though.

PvP is less of a dumpster fire than before, probably because Bungie seems to have gone a "fuck it, let's just make it a lot closer to Halo" route (two primary weapons, supers/abilities have such long cooldowns they might as well not exist, higher time to kill). I really don't think they have any idea how to reconcile Destiny's BYOGun with randomly rolled perks to competitive multiplayer where balance is required, and that's probably because there isn't a good way to do it. I've always hated this game's multiplayer where, depending on the flavor of the latest patch, if you weren't using a handful of god-rolled guns then your loadout was objectively worse than someone else's. That's not going to change here. It will never be balanced unless you take the gun perks out of it entirely. Personally, I think Destiny would be a better game without any multiplayer at all and more PvE content in its place. It has always felt like Bungie felt obligated to put it in because Destiny is an FPS, and they once made a game that set a generational standard for how a shooter is made.

Most of my many gripes with the changes I've seen stem from how they all seem to be made to try and make the PvP side of the game not terrible. Putting shotguns and sniper rifles in the power slot is just the latest step in curtailing the special weapon craze in Destiny 1 and, like most of the changes Bungie made later into the game's life, PvE gets fucked over because of it. That's glaringly obvious and shows no sign of slowing down from what I've played of this beta. If that's the direction the gameplay is going in, then I'm jumping off while I can. It's so frustrating, because there's clearly an amazing story to tell somewhere and I want to have fun playing through it without the shadow of the glossed up pig that is Destiny PvP trying to take the spotlight.

The guns feel just as good to shoot but they cranked the bullet sponge factor up to 11. The strike boss has a fun gimmick with changing his elemental weapons and attacking differently based on the phase of the fight, but he's just a massive pile of hit points to shoot at. Every weapon in PvE feels extremely weak, and not being able to use a shotgun or fusion rifle unless I have purple ammo is depressing. If you're going to put a shotgun in the same weapon category as a fucking ROCKET LAUNCHER, I better be killing three Cabal with one slug. Instead it feels exactly like it did in Destiny 1. Nessus is a gorgeous environment though.

PvP is less of a dumpster fire than before, probably because Bungie seems to have gone a "fuck it, let's just make it a lot closer to Halo" route (two primary weapons, supers/abilities have such long cooldowns they might as well not exist, higher time to kill). I really don't think they have any idea how to reconcile Destiny's BYOGun with randomly rolled perks to competitive multiplayer where balance is required, and that's probably because there isn't a good way to do it. I've always hated this game's multiplayer where, depending on the flavor of the latest patch, if you weren't using a handful of god-rolled guns then your loadout was objectively worse than someone else's. That's not going to change here. It will never be balanced unless you take the gun perks out of it entirely. Personally, I think Destiny would be a better game without any multiplayer at all and more PvE content in its place. It has always felt like Bungie felt obligated to put it in because Destiny is an FPS, and they once made a game that set a generational standard for how a shooter is made.

Most of my many gripes with the changes I've seen stem from how they all seem to be made to try and make the PvP side of the game not terrible. Putting shotguns and sniper rifles in the power slot is just the latest step in curtailing the special weapon craze in Destiny 1 and, like most of the changes Bungie made later into the game's life, PvE gets fucked over because of it. That's glaringly obvious and shows no sign of slowing down from what I've played of this beta. If that's the direction the gameplay is going in, then I'm jumping off while I can. It's so frustrating, because there's clearly an amazing story to tell somewhere and I want to have fun playing through it without the shadow of the glossed up pig that is Destiny PvP trying to take the spotlight.

Destiny's PvP should have been fundamentally different from the start. I've held this opinion since before Destiny 1 came out. The below concept would solve the whole "everything needs to be balanced for PvE and PvP at all times" problem.

Guardians vs Aliens: three Guardians have all of their weapons, loot, and equipment they've acquired in the PvE and are matched against six player-controlled high-ranking aliens (Fallen Captain, Stealth Vandal, Hive Wizard, Hive Knight, etc.) and a bunch of low-ranking AI-controlled mobs. Aliens are controlled in third-person and have the same abilities and weapons present in PvE. This mode can re-use environments from strikes, campaign missions, etc.

Guardians vs Guardians: preset weapons and abilities with power weapons and vehicles that spawn around multiplayer maps specifically designed for this mode. When you see an enemy warlock, you'll know what weapons he's carrying and what abilities he has because these are consistent across gametypes and maps. This mode would be a lot more like Halo -- I game I've heard used to be pretty gud.

I've been watching on Twitch, and a lot of these PC players with big followings are really liking it. I saw one dude learn the whole game over several hours the other day, in addition to him being absolutely incredible at fps with kbm, the dude was just loving the game. I think the game will develop a PC following, especially since the pvp is more competitive and balanced. The constant thing I hear mentioned is how good the gunplay feels.